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Three ways professional athletes crush their goals

The majority of people fail. It’s so true that the people at the top of the mountain didn’t fall there. All you have to do is look at how professional athletescrush their goals.

1) Just Do It:

Cal Ripken Jr. played in 2632 straight MLB games without missing a single day. When Derek Jeter asked him the secret of playing every day, Cal replied, “ You know Derek, I just…I just play.” The record didn’t drive Cal Ripken, The Ironman of Baseball…He just showed up and got better.Any goal is worth pursuing! Whatever your goal is, just do it! Go get it, period! Don’t let the fear of not reaching your goal get in your way. Just be prepared to show up every day and work hard for it.

Is this familiar? We miss a workout or a goal and we get down on ourselves. We slowly slip into missing another one and before we know it, we have given up. Research has called this interesting phenomenon, Adherence Violation Effect, which means that one missed exercise session leads us to abandon future exercise habits.

Don’t get discouraged, just pick up where you were and keep going!

3) It’s Not About You:

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Juilo Jones, NFL wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons, doesn’t set personal goals. Instead, “It’s all about the team.” He doesn’t set personal goals for the same reasons we don’t, “I don’t want to limit myself.”

Often, instead of setting goals, what we actually do is make deals with ourselves. We make deal statements such as “If I, then I” or “If you, then I” and in the process, limit ourselves. For instance, “If I work out four days this week, then I can eat that entire cake” or “If you clean your room, then you can have the car.”These are deals, not goals, and they undermine our success. Professional athletes crush their goals by NOT making deals with themselves.

Instead, focus on a team or family goal. When we focus on others through our goals, we follow through more, because the goal isn’t about us. This is how professional athletes get it done. NO ONE gets there ALONE!

about

I’m a husband and father of two wonderful kids. I’m an Ironman, and endurance athlete, and I PLAY. Golf, swim, ski, run, ping-pong and chess. I speak & train with teams, organizations, and coaches on mental toughness.